My Favourite Coloured Pencil Combos for Brown Fur

catrinmemberyart
3 days ago
2 min read

Even as someone who has been drawing dogs for years, my mind still stops for a moment when it comes to tackling brown fur.

There are so many different colours peeking through underneath the perfect brown fur, and I often find it hard to know where to start -

How light/dark do I need to go with my base layer.. is it a warm toned brown or cool toned.. or both!?

If you follow me on Instagram you'll have seen that I'm currently working on a huge commission of Rocco the beautiful brown cocker spaniel.

I'm drawing 5 different portraits of him, and as excited as I am to be creating this, the brown fur is proving to be quite tricky!

The easiest place to start is by picking out the lightest colours to create a base layer that covers the paper.

(look at the highlights in the fur - what colours can you see?)

After this, we can start adding some more of the subtle colours often found in brown fur like pinks, oranges, and purples.

Finally, I begin to add the brown pencils, drawing in fur details.

COLOURED PENCIL COMBOS THAT NEVER FAIL :

Base for highlights - Buff titanium*, ivory

Subtle colours - Beige red, burnt ochre, violet, brownish beige**

Brown details - Nougat and van dyck brown for neutral brown colours, bistre and burnt umber for warm brown, and walnut brown for a cooler tone.